A PC Gaming Music Journey: From Doom to Terraria, System Shock, and More Memorable Soundtracks

A few years back, we published a feature spotlighting memorable video play music from the 8-bit and 16-bit eras. The brainstorming session for that piece was comprehensive. Still, for brevity, the list was sculpted down to just eight core access and two honorable mentions—uncertain of a sequel, we felt Daytona USA and Techno Syndrome lived simply too important to overlook.

Our readers touch on the issue, reminiscing about their famous soundtracks and filing out some glaring omissions, whether due to the sheer unfamiliarity of a special game or it simply not cutting. One item was clear: a sequel was in order.

Forging along with part two, we chose to focus exclusively on outstanding PC game soundtracks. We’ve certainly got our hands full as there’s a superabundance of excellent material to consider. Let’s revisit some of the most amazing video game music from the PC era…

Doom: 1993

A PC Gaming Music Journey From Doom to Terraria

Can an entire franchise be evaluated for inclusion in a roundup like this? I guess it can when that series is doomed. The groundbreaking first-person sharpshooter dropped from id Software at the tail end of 1993 and forever transformed gaming. It was edgy, gritty, contentious, and fun… and it had one badass soundtrack.

Music and good effects for the original Doom were made by Bobby Prince, who had just ended up working on an earlier id Software game you might be acquainted with, Wolfenstein 3D.

Interestingly adequately, Prince didn’t write music for detailed levels as the game wasn’t finished when he did his part. Rather, it was John Romero who later came in and determined which tracks to associate with at what levels.

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Prince got the nod for Doom II as nicely and has been involved in several other tasks over the years including Duke Nukem II and Duke Nukem 3D, among others.

For the 2016 Doom reboot, id Software enrolled composer Mick Gordon. The Australian musician’s job in gaming extends back to 2006, but the latest Doom marked a significant breakthrough. Gordon closed the project with dedication, creating an innovative form for composing music and even masking some clever Easter eggs he thought would remain undiscovered.

His efforts were rewarded when Doom secured the Best Music/Sound Design award at The Game Awards 2016. Gordon also performed live at the event.

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Andrew Hulshult, another famous American video game songwriter, also embraced the Doom craze. In 2016, he fired a fully modern and polished remake of the original Doom soundtrack. His project, titled IDKFA: Full Doom Remake Album, certainly opened doors for him in the gaming industry, which we’ll examine shortly.

Myst: 1993

A PC Gaming Music Journey From Doom to Terraria

Myst debuted on the Macintosh in late 1993 and subsequently earned its way to Windows computers the subsequent year. The puzzle-solving game was truly groundbreaking, overpowering everything else with its richly conceived world, innovative gameplay mechanics, and beautiful good design.

It easily ranks among my top 5 favorite games of all time. For many years, it held the title of best-selling PC game (until The Sims overtook it in 2002). Myst is also the game that sparked my interest in PC gaming, though it would be another five years before I got my first computer and began exploring titles like Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six, Unreal Tournament, and Carmageddon II.

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In Myst, participants must unravel puzzles to collect books that fascinate them to different worlds, or “Ages.” In these Ages, the party is accountable for locating missing pages and returning to Myst Island to put them in the right books to advance the storyline.

The game’s soundtrack was written by Robyn Miller, who also took on the part of the game’s primary visual designer. In my view, it’s the piece that truly distinguishes the game.

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The tracks designated to each Age are brilliantly crafted, significantly donating to an unparalleled sense of immersion. Every track completes its setting perfectly. And place, we’re talking about a game that’s now more than 25 years old. Reaching that level of craftsmanship back then was no small feat.

Indigo Prophecy: 2005

A PC Gaming Music Journey From Doom to Terraria

Indigo Prophecy, known as Fahrenheit outside of North America, was the double major release from French video game designer Quantic Dream. It’s billed as an action-adventure play that relies heavily on quick time events, or encouraging inputs on the controller to match a sequence displayed on the screen. It’s more of a choose-your-own-adventure interactive story.

The game’s songwriter, Angelo Badalamenti, worked with a Canadian orchestra to register the game’s score. Badalamenti is perhaps best understood for his work on Twin Peaks, the early 90s American mystery/horror TV sequence.

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In a discussion with 1up, Indigo Prophecy writer and executive David Cage said his only recommendation to Badalamenti was to forget he was operating on a video game. Instead, he enjoyed the composer to treat the scheme as if it were a real movie.A PC Gaming Music Journey

“Angelo was quite open-minded and open-minded, Cage said. “When he pushed me to hear the first theme he wrote for Lucas during the start sequence, it was apparent it was the right one. It had all the sentiment I was looking for, this opaque, epic, human sense I was desperate to hear.”

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Fahrenheit More features four songs from Canadian rock band Approach of a Deadman off their two-studio album, Gasoline.

The most famous was without a doubt Santa Monica, which if I recall, was recreated during the game’s finish credits. Say Goodbye was also a marker track, but I don’t think it ever reached the popularity of Santa Monica.

Terraria: 2011

A PC Gaming Music Journey From Doom to Terraria

Terraria is a 2D sandbox experience game launched in May 2011. It features crafting, investigation, action, and combat elements with a 16-bit graphical art style that looks and plays a lot like games such as Super Metroid or Minecraft.

Terraria shares better than just basic graphic similarities with Super Metroid. Like the SNES masterpiece, it also features a fantastic soundtrack that is instrumental in creating immersive gameplay circumstances. For me, that starts with the perfect Overworld Day track.

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This tune is blameless, enabling exploration and inviting the player to test with elements like crafting and shelter building.

As the day bleeds into the evening, the background music evolves more somber. Start prospecting down into the ground and the music switches again, this time into something that’s even more reminiscent of something you power hear in a Metroid game. Enter a boss area and you quickly realize it’s moment to go into battle.

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This is the majesty of what composer Scott Lloyd Shelly did with Terraria’s soundtrack – it acclimates to what’s occurring on-screen and boosts immersion. It doesn’t take long to forget all about the fact that you are playing a game that is visually elementary to what is considered a missing edge by today’s standards.

System Shock 2: 1999

A PC Gaming Music Journey From Doom to Terraria

System Shock 2 started life in 1997 as something entirely different. Looking Glass Technologies established the original System Shock in 1994. An occasional years later, a couple of Looking Glass staffers including Ken Levine left the group to create their dev studio, Irrational Games. As fate would keep it, the head of Looking Glass called and questioned if they wanted to come in and propose a game the power wanted to build. Immediately, they believed in System Shock 2.

Levine said the initial design issue was how to construct such a game without the luxury of the actual System Shock franchise. Eventually, Electronic Arts marked on as a publisher in early 1998 which suggested they could utilize the System Shock name.

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For as great a match as System Shock 2 was, the music power is even better. It was written by Josh Randall, Ramin Djawadi, and Eric Brosius and is zero short of spectacular. Med Sci 2 is fast becoming a favorite of mine and Ops 1 is giving me some vital The Legend of Zelda level nine vibes.A PC Gaming Music Journey

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Randall, also known as Robotkid, moved on to serve as creative director at Harmonix Music where he worked on projects like Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Djawadi is possibly best known for scoring smash hits like Game of Thrones, Westworld, and the 2008 film Iron Man. Brosius, a retired member of the band Tribe, was also responsible for writing the music for the first three Thief games.

Dusk: 2018

A PC Gaming Music Journey From Doom to Terraria

Dusk is a retro first-person sharpshooter from David Szymanski who was inspired by classics like Doom and Half-Life. The game plays a lot like early first-person sharpshooters, tasking players with reaching each stage’s exit while battling sinister creatures, collecting power-ups, and finding secrets along the way. A PC Gaming Music

What put Dusk on my radar, however, was its killer soundtrack.

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Dive into Dusk predicting a non-stop feed of thrash metal and you’ll be disappointed. Instead, what you get is mostly serene experience music that only ramps up during intense battle scenes. But when the activity does get hot and rich, oh boy is the music good.A PC Gaming Music Journey

Endless is my famous song from the soundtrack, hands down, so considerably so that I’ve added it to my everyday music playlist. Release to Destruction is another track that accurately describes what composer Andrew Hulshult tried to accomplish with Dusk.

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If there’s one criticism, it’s that the hardcore tunes are spaced too far apart in the competition. But, this can be easily translated by simply packing up the actual game soundtrack on your favored streaming service or YouTube.

Max Payne: 2001

A PC Gaming Music Journey From Doom to Terraria

Max Payne has permanently felt like one of those games that never got the credit it truly deserved, but perhaps that is simply a bit of revisionist history.

The third-person sharpshooter was met with a wave of mostly favorable reviews following its launch in the summer of 2001 and took home plenty of hardware during awards season including Best PC Game of 2001 awards from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. It also won the IGN readers’ choice award in several types including best graphics and best sound.

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Two sequels were made, as was a full-length film adaptation starring Mark Wahlberg and Mila Kunis. It was also among the first video games to successfully execute the bullet-time mechanic. It had a rather good soundtrack, too. A PC Gaming Music

Music in the play was written by Kärtsy Hatakka and Kimmo Kajasto. While it accomplishes having any songs that’ll burn themselves into your brain, Killer Suits and Graphic Novel are both perfect examples of the sort of atmosphere the soundtrack helped set.

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With this one, it’s more about the sum of its regions. I think that holds for the game in general, the franchise, and particularly the soundtrack.

Mirror’s Edge: 2009

A PC Gaming Music Journey From Doom to Terraria

If ever a frolicking on this list elicits pure ambiance with its soundtrack, Mirror’s Edge is it.

Discharged in late 2008, the action-adventure platformer tasks players with managing Faith Connors as she traverses rooftops runs along walls, climbs pipes, and functions other acrobatic feats of danger to slip past foes. In short, it’s a game around Parkour.

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Parkour seems like the kind of activity where you need to be in the zone, the right attitude. Music in the play, no doubt as it does for real-life Parkour players, can go a long way in helping to get your head in the right place. A PC Gaming Music Journey

The theme in Mirror’s Edge was composed by Magnus Birgersson, although you might know him agreeably by his stage name, Solar Fields. Birgersson is a well-known Swedish electronic music artist who performed on the original title and the sequel, Mirror’s Edge Catalyst.A PC Gaming Music Journey

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If you like what you attended to from the original, there’s little reason to suspect Fields’ work in the second game won’t also demand from you.

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